Sympathy for the Devil (4½ Stars)

This is the 23rd film in the Stuttgart Fantasy Film Festival.

The yearly Stuttgart Fantasy Film Festival is never complete without a film starring Nicolas Cage. In the film shown today David Chamberlain is a man who lives in Las Vegas. He drives to a hospital where his wife is about to have a baby. He parks his car, but before he can get out an unnamed man played by Nicolas Cage climbs into the car and threatens him with a gun. The credits list Nicolas Cage's identity as "The Passenger". This year it's common for many of the film characters to be unnamed.

The Passenger orders David to drive him to Boulder City. When David asks how long the journey will take, the Passenger replies, "Why do you think you're ever going home"? The film turns into a terrifying road trip with the Passenger killing several people on the way. Nicolas Cage's performance is what we've grown to expect from him: over-the-top insanity. He's an actor that people either love or hate. I've witnessed this in the online discussions about "Renfield". Half of the people say that Nicolas was awful as Dracula, and the other half say he was brilliant. Today's cinema audience was biased. After the film everyone was gushing with praise. Including me.

The films in this year's festival have been weaker than usual, but this was the best film so far. I'm hoping for better films in the last two days.